PENGUIN PARK

Strategies of Inter-human/Inter-species/Inter-urban

Site: Near Nanjing Train Station, Hongshan Forest Zoo, Xuanwu, Nanjing, China

ARC408 Visiting critic studio: Fall2021_Shanghai Visit Critics

Instructor: Ziyue Liu (SANAA)

Partner: Weiwei Lei,Nicholas Chung

Contribution: Schematic design, Handcraft Modeling, Drawings

The exploration of edges between nature and humans is constantly explored by designers. For city zoos, the idea of creating the natural sphere become necessary and how could integrate the action of human without affecting the environment and disturbing to animals. The abstract of Penguin Park is to propose a new animal enclosure for the Hongshan Zoo in Nanjing, which itself is a segmented piece of nature in the heart of the city.

The site is in between the zoo and the Nanjing transportation, one of the most populated and busy areas in the city. This project is seeking an architectural strategy to respond to the complex site conditions with the respect to animal habits.

Mangelic penguin, a temperate South American animal, has the ability to live in the outdoor temperature and humidification in Nanjing. Humans have more opportunities to be active and engaged with the Mangelic Penguins.

We were intrigued by the parallel between how they traverse sociologically between amphibian habitats and how humans occupy the cityscape to recreate and work.

Given that the site parcel is an edge condition between the city and nature, we wanted to leverage it as an interface of inter-human, interspecies, and interurban transactions.

KangaroosHorizontal field Requires headroom Sparse ground vegetation

Tigers More horizontal landscaping to offer variety Encourage exploration Elevated base for visibility of humans and ‘prey’

Koala Interior climate control Less human interaction Less ground vegetation

Panda Terrain change ClimbingBambooplatforms height

Monkeys Prevent from escaping High degree of customiz-ability Horizontal and vertical play

Giraffe

Less horizontal Tall Enablevegetation food baskets to be lowered from above

Elephant Headroom Horizontal movement Water and vegetation

Aviary Maximum Verticality Netting or glass to define boundary Vegetation should offer variety of enclosure

Petting zoo Closed scale Soft boundary

Gorilla Load consideration Ground and elevated occupation Dense ground vegetation resource

Zoo Typologies - Animal Inhabitation

Zoos as a type has historically shifted from a menagerie to novelties, accessible only to societal elites, to a picturesque landscape that mimics the ecological condition as a means to educate or condition into the public consciousness a scientifically idealized scientific rationalization and dichotomy of nature/human.

Boundary become dynamic and blurred

Dynamic Boundary - The Threshold between Animals and Humans

Spatially, a boundary is defined as “a line that marks the limits of an area; a dividing line”. In nature, instead of a linear defined edge, the boundary emerges as an irregular organic cumulus, expanding towards various directions, that imply all possible actions, movements, and emotions between humans and animals.

Mangelic penguin have fixed Social Framework, habitual and spatial patterns.

Living in sand

Hunting in Water

Human Tangent

Mangelic penguin require an amphibian environment that separates their recreation and productivity. Much like how humans live in suburbs and go into cities to work.

Amphibious Habitats. Establish living sand habitat and hunting diving habitats for penguins.

8 Hour - Zoo Tickets Required Circulation

Extended from the zoo’s walkway to form the circulation of the first roof floor.

Intersected Interior Program

The bubbles set between two habitats and visitors could see penguins’ activity.

Penguin Highway

A bridge is created for daily hunting of penguins to connect between the two habitats.

24 Hour - Free Public Circulation

The second floor’s walkable roof connect adjacent urban roadway and city mall.

City and Nature Division

Vertical Circulation

Visitors are able to switched to different floor at the critical intersections.

Schematically, the project serves as a tangential line that bifurcates the 2 penguin habitats where human programs occur. These pathways are delayer into an enclosed route for the zoo and a route that bleeds back out into the city, linking the station, the zoo, and the new plaza or mall complex.

Penguin Habitat I - Playing and Predation

Penguin Habitat II - Living and Incubation

Penguin Highway and Outdoor Theater

The trajectory intersection point of two Habitats and human main exhibition space becomes the amphitheater allows for the daily ritual of migration to devolve into a spectacle for human (and in a more morbid criticality, for penguin) consumption.

Intervention and Integration

Human and penguin circulations are equally considered and intersected with two habituations, Living/incubation, and playing/predation. Because of the design, the scenes between sand and water become much more playful and diverse for both animals and humankind.

Branding and Graphic Design